The days when your cell phone supported only snake and a couple of card games are long in the past. Today, the variety of mobile games is almost endless, from car racing and puzzles to shooters and fantasy epics. At the same time, modern mobile devices have almost caught up with the PC in terms of power. And incorporated social features make mobile games even more addictive.
However, the boundaries of game genres have long been blurred. Developers no longer build the gameplay according to strict requirements. On the contrary, even indie game studios diligently experiment. Someone tries to dilute a “three in a row” puzzle game by searching for objects, and someone complements shooters with role-playing and elements of tactical training for future battles.
Therefore, there is no generally accepted classification of mobile games. The constant change of genres and new game experiments from developers sometimes prevent a clear definition of the competitive niche. However, there are some specifics about dividing games into homogeneous mechanics.
- Categories. As we can see, the 4 main categories contain sections forming a kind of pyramid. In this example, the separation of Casino, Sports, and Racing from Mid-Core and Casual is for a reason. The reason for this division lies in the uniqueness of the target audience, the main functions, and the idea. For example, being an animal hunter and a sniper in a game are two identical mechanics, but they have completely different target audiences.
- Genres. At this point, many developers can already identify the competitive side. For example, games that are related to the Puzzle genre have similar game mechanics and thus a similar target audience. Genres can help you better understand which games are gaining popularity in a particular market.
- Sub-genres. For those who want to know their competitors “in person,” it’s worth diving even deeper and exploring your niche in more detail. In the sub-genre classification, you can find and pick up options that are similar to your product. This will allow for a more detailed analysis to understand your competitiveness. For example, when Battle Royale broke into the market and gained a huge fan audience, it got its own specific subgenre. As a result, companies could research this type of game as a separate niche in the market.
Thanks to this segmentation of mobile games, you can more quickly determine the decline or, conversely, the popularity of a particular genre. At the initial stage of development, understanding such things is a must.